Spanish Potato Salad (Ensaladilla Rusa)

Here’s a recipe for another uber-typical Spanish tapa: ensaladilla rusa or vegan Russian salad. It’s a very easy Spanish potato salad that will most definitely find in any and all bars serving tapas in Barcelona.

However, you’d be hard-pressed to find a vegan version of ensaladilla rusa, as it usually contains tuna and always mayonnaise. Luckily, the tuna is not essential and the mayonnaise is easy to veganize so here’s my vegan version of Spanish potato salad.

This vegan ensaladilla rusa uses cheap, everyday ingredients which is, I imagine, why it has become such a popular tapa dish. Although surely not as popular in the bars as patatas bravas, ensaladilla rusa is so simple that anyone can make it at home and it’s possible to buy prepared versions in most supermarkets.

I looked over a lot of different recipes when preparing my vegan Spanish potato salad as there’s no one “master” recipe.

Potatoes are essential, of course, as well as carrots and peas. After that you’ve got some leeway. Olives, tuna, shrimp, hard-boiled egg, gherkins, roasted red peppers, capers and/or white asparagus have all appeared in various recipes. I’ve even seen recipes with corn, which to me seems a little strange, but feel free to add any combination of ingredients which takes your fancy.

Since this is such a popular dish in Spain, many other vegan Spanish bloggers have already produced their own vegan versions of ensaladilla rusa.

I noticed that while they all had their own variations in ingredients, they all used the same vegan mayonnaise recipe with plant milk, usually soy. Although I only drink soy milk and love it, the idea of using it to make a mayonnaise for a savory salad doesn’t appeal to me.

The flavour of soy milk is so distinctive that I imagine it would over-power the entire dish and this salad is all about the gently mingling of flavours. Furthermore, there are many people who avoid soy due to allergy so there’s a desperate need for more creativity here.

Aquafaba (chickpea water) has been my solution to all things mayonnaise-based since I first used it to make Spanish alioli.

It works great in this vegan ensaladilla rusa to give the exact same flavour as a homemade egg-based mayonnaise, and it was also great in this vegan Caesar salad I made recently.

Typically this Spanish potato salad is laden with mayonnaise, too much for my taste. I added about three quarters of the total mayonnaise that this recipe makes but you can feel free to add a little more if you like.

Wanna see how easy Ensaladilla Rusa is to make? Watch the video!

Spanish Potato Salad (Ensaladilla Rusa)

Serves 4 as a tapa

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For the ensaladilla rusa

500 grams (1 pound) of potatoes

2 medium carrots

100 grams (3.5 oz) of peas, fresh or frozen

85 grams (3 oz) of green olives, sliced

salt and pepper, to taste

bread, for serving

For the vegan mayonnaise

3 tablespoons of aquafaba (water from a can of chickpeas)

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 cup of oil (mild olive or sunflower or a mix of the two)

Peel and cut both the potatoes and carrots into cubes of about 1.5 cm (half an inch). Boil them along with the peas in a large pot until tender - about 10 minutes. Drain the vegetables and set aside to cool completely.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the mayonnaise by adding all the ingredients except the oil into a tall measuring cup. Blitz with an immersion blender until the garlic is pureed. Slowly pour in the oil with the blender running the whole time. Taste and adjust the balance of salt, lemon and mustard to your liking.

Once the vegetables are cooled, add the olives and as much or as little mayonnaise as you like. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking. It's better to leave the salad to chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours for the flavours to mingle, but you can also serve it immediately. Serve with bread on the side.

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2 Comments

Trish

August 8, 2016 at 10:21 am
Looks fabulous. I've never made my own vegan mayo before either. Here in the US I can get a really good pre made mayo called Just Mayo, but I'd rather make my own! Potato salad ... Who doesn't love it?! Pinned for the near future! Thanks :)

Melissa

August 8, 2016 at 4:57 pm
It's really hard for me to find pre-made vegan mayo in Spain but aquafaba is wonderful for that! I didn't know how easy it was to make mayo until I tried aquafaba, now I put it in everything!